Celebrating CMU-Africa entrepreneurs

Second Life Storage, a CMU-Africa alumni startup hosted by the Industry Innovation Lab, won second place at the 2021 Hanga PitchFest. The win came with a $20,000 prize.

Second Life Storage identified the problem of increased battery waste from solar home systems and electric vehicles, which is hazardous to the environment if not properly disposed of. Latent value is additionally lost since batteries retain about 70% of the initial storage capacity at retirement. Their solution was to build energy storage systems from batteries salvaged from e-waste or retired from electric vehicles, by customizing battery packs for various market segments, to provide power back-up and electricity bill savings, through peak shaving and load shifting applications.

Second Life Storage builds energy storage systems from lithium-ion batteries salvaged from e-waste or retired from electric vehicles. The battery packs are customized for various market segments to provide power back-up and electricity bill savings through peak shaving and load shifting applications. The startup is accelerating access to renewable clean energy through the salvaging of batteries for the storage systems which aligns with the UN's sustainable development goals target to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.

“We hope to apply data science and logistical system design to not only produce energy storage at low cost to homes and businesses, that do not receive the reliability they need from their grid connection, but also address maintenance and supply chain anxieties of customers through a service model,” says Second Life Storage co-founder, Leandre Berwa (MS ECE '20).

The CMU-Africa Industry Innovation Lab is supporting CMU-Africa students, graduates, and other entrepreneurs in the innovation ecosystem to accelerate product development, launch their companies, and grow their businesses. The lab work with industry partners, 4th Industrial Revolution technologies, and Carnegie Mellon's global community of faculty, staff, and alumni.